Tiny But Beautiful Lights
by telemetries
Summary: During one winter's day, Ed, Al, and Winry decide they want to create a snowman. Upon a hill sits a surly Homonculus who is curious about these children building the snowman, especially the smaller one with a cute face and ponytail. One-shot, shounen-ai.


Tiny But Beautiful Lights

**Tiny But Beautiful Lights**

The children came out of the house, wrapped thickly in cotton scarves and tiny woolen mittens. Snow surrounded their house and all of the hills and farms nearby. It was like a wintry paradise had just landed right in their neighbourhood. Thanks to all the snow, school was out for the rest of the week and they had plenty of time to play and throw snowballs at each other. So far, this little vacation had been tons of fun.

As the children stepped outside, the smallest one, who was ironically the oldest, stopped to straighten his coat.

"Come on, Ed! We're going to the hill."

"Give me a minute!" Ed called out. "My coat feels funny."

"It's because it's too long on you," one of the children said, this one a girl named Winry. "It was meant for a bigger kid."

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SMALL HE CAN'T EVEN FIT A COAT WITHOUT COMPLETELY DISAPPEARING INTO IT!?"

"Ed! Relax." Ed's brother, Al, made calm-down motions with his hands. "We never said that."

Ed made a noise that sounded something like "hrrmph" and he walked down the steps of Granny Pinako's house. Indeed, his coat was a little too big and a smidgen too long for his small frame. He hated being so short! It wasn't fair! All the bigger kids got to have fun. Last year, he couldn't ride one of the ferris wheels at the state fair because he was five inches too short. Then he and his family had to leave the state fair because he had started kicking the ferris wheel attendant in the shins.

_That'll teach 'em to ruin my fun._

But here, in the snow, there were no regulations or height restrictions or stupid attendants whose shins needed kicking. There was only that awesome fluffy white stuff that fell out of the sky and landed on the ground and made Ed feel all kinds of happy.

_Yippee!_

With that, he raced to catch up with Al and Winry, who were heading for the top of the hill.

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He had been watching the little boys and the little girl with a curious gleam in his eye. His round, pale face was even paler in the frozen atmosphere, and the little palm-tree haired child wrapped his pitch-black scarf around his face, his big black eyes scanning the hills. On his hands were fluffy black mittens, and around his skinny body was a cotton black coat with big crimson buttons. He crunched the snow with his big black boots. If it hadn't been for his scary glare, the little boy (or girl -- most couldn't tell, but they assumed he was a boy anyway) would have just been a big fluffy ball of cute.

But if it had been up to him, he would have come out in his normal outfit of a half-top and miniskirt. It made him look so much cuter, in his opinion, but _noooo_. Father just _had _to make him wear proper winter clothes. Not for fear of his health, but just because he wanted him to appear normal to the outsiders. If he was bored, he could go outside, but he had to wear normal clothes. The boy was slightly grateful, though. He really was not in the mood to play Twenty Questions with Weird Humans.

He decided he wanted to get in a little closer. It was boring up on his lonely little hill. Brushing some snow out of his dark hair, the boy walked downward and eventually came to the three children, who had already accomplished making a snowman and were looking around for some odd reason.

"What are you doing?"

For a small child, his voice was commanding. The three children stopped what they were doing and looked at the strange little boy. (Or was it a girl? Oh, the confusion!)

"We were looking for stones," the girl said. "He needs a nose."

"Who needs a nose?"

The girl pointed to the snowman.

"Oh."

"What's your name?" the boy with the shorter blonde hair asked cheerfully.

The palm-tree boy scowled, but he said it anyway. "My name is Envy."

The other boy, with longer hair, burst out laughing.

"E-E-Envy?! W-What kind of a name is that? BWAHAHAAAAA!!"

The boy called Envy looked highly offended, but he decided to control his anger.

"Then what are _your _names, hu -- I mean, weirdos?"

The boy stopped laughing, and put on a proud smile. "I'm Edward, Ed for short," he proclaimed loudly, jabbing his small chest with his short little thumb. "That's Alphonse, but we call him Al -- " he pointed to the other boy, "-- and this is our friend Winry."

"Is Al your older brother?" Envy asked, knowing the truth but wanting to get a rise out of Shortie here.

"Nope! I am!" Ed said proudly.

"Really? I couldn't tell," Envy said. "You're so...small."

At this, the little blonde boy positively exploded. "I AM NOT SMALL! I AM STILL GROWING, YOU BACKWARDS WEIRDO! AT LEAST I'M NOT FREAKISHLY SKINNY!"

Envy puffed up his cheeks.

"I AM NOT FREAKISHLY SKINNY! I AM PETITE AND ADORABLE! HOW DARE YOU INSULT MY FIGURE!"

"Guys, guys!" Al cut in, looking nervous. "We don't need to fight. Come on, let's finish the snowman. Envy, would you like to help?"

Envy stopped yelling and looked a little miffed. His cheeks were red and he had put on a pout. On one hand, he could leave now and go find someone else to play with. On the other hand, these people seemed okay and besides, the short one was kind of cute.

"...Okay."

For five minutes, the small children looked in the snow for small black stones to place for the snowman's nose. Al and Winry had decided to go to the next hill to find them, while Ed was stuck with Envy. A few moments' silence and some distance had managed to ease the tension between the two boys. They continued their search for stones, every now and again throwing little grins at each other.

Then, all of a sudden, Envy clapped his cheek with one fluffy mitten and his little mouth made a perfect O.

"I forgot!" he exclaimed. Digging in his pocket, Envy produced a carrot.

"Hey!" Ed exclaimed. "That's perfect!"

Ed leaped forward to claim the carrot, but Envy decided he could use this moment to his advantage. He took the carrot and put it behind his back.

"Hey!"

Ed tried to grab the carrot, but his arms were too short and he flailed hopelessly after the vegetable. Envy had a cute little smirk on his face and looked Ed square in the eye.

"I'll give you the carrot," Envy said cheerfully, "if you kiss me."

Ed stopped and pouted.

"No!" he snapped. "I'm not gonna kiss you! You called me small."

"And you called me freakishly skinny," Envy replied, "but I forgave you, didn't I?"

Ed looked a little uncomfortable for a moment, then he sighed.

"One kiss?"

"One kiss."

Ed leaned in for a few seconds, then he planted a warm, sweet, two-second-long kiss on Envy's rouge lips. Unfortunately for Ed, as he did this, Al and Winry were just coming back to see if Ed and Envy had found any stones.

Ed looked to where his friends were and his expression went from dreamy to mortified in a pinch.

"Oooh, Ed!" Al said aloud. "I'm telling Mom!"

"I -- We -- We don't like each other!" Ed spluttered. "Envy was going to give me the carrot if I kissed him! Honest!"

"_Edward's got a boyfriend!" _Winry sang, her eyes shining with glee. Al laughed and Ed lost it. He proceeded to chase his brother around the snowman several times, while Envy and Winry stood there, laughing.

So, in the end, the carrot did end up on the snowman, but of course Ed wanted to be the one to put it on his face. This required a boost from one of the other children. Envy was the tallest.

"You know what I want, then," Envy said, grinning a wide grin. Ed rolled his eyes and gave Envy another small, delicate kiss while Winry and Al tittered. After another chase around the snowman and finally getting the carrot on his head, the four children stood there and admired their handiwork. As they did so, it began to snow again. They looked up at the sky in wonderment, the perfect flakes glistening as they descended down to earth and filled their eyes with tiny but beautiful lights.


End file.
